1 


F 
890 


SPEECH 


HOI.  ISAAC  I.  STEVENS, 


DELEGATE  FROM 


ON   THE 


WASHINGTON  AND  OREGON  WAR  CLAIMS. 


DELIVERED    IN 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


MAY   31,    1858. 


WASHINGTON: 

FEINTED    BY    LEMUEL    TOWERS 
1858. 


pee 

,S94 

X 


SPEECH 

OF 

HON.  ISAAC  I,  STEVENS, 

DELEGATE  FROM  WASHINGTON  TERRITORY, 

ON  THE 

WASHINGTON  AND  OEEGON  WAK  CLAIMS. 


DELIYEEED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  MA.T  81,  1858. 


The  House  being;  in  committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  Mr. 
ISAAC  I.  STEVENS  said: 

I  take  this  occasion,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  present  a  few  observations  in  regard 
to  the  Washington  and  Oregon  war  claim.  This  is  a  matter  certainty  of  some 
little  consequence,  for  it  involves  no  less  a  sum  than  six  millions  of  dollars. 
Incident  to  this,  however,  is  another  question  of  more  importance  still,  namely: 
the  character  and  honor  of  the  people  of  those  distant  Territories,  and  the  hon-or 
of  our  whole  country.  One  question  touches  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  other  the  good  name  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  I  shall  dwell 
upon  them  both.  I  shall  endeavor  to  vindicate  the  character  and  conduct  of 
the  people  of  those  Territories,  and  the  operations  undertaken  by  the  authori 
ties  of  those  Territories  for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  Indian  hostilities.  I  shall 
endeavor  to  show  that  those  operations  were  necessary,  that  they  were  econom 
ical,  and  that  they  are  entitled  to  the  confidence  and  sympathy  of  the  country  ; 
and  finally  I  shall  endeavor  to  show  by  precedents,  by  the  course  of  the  Gov 
ernment  in  regard  to  other  portions  of  the  country,  that  we  have  a  right  to 
expect  prompt  and  ample  justice  from  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  has  been  often  charged  against  us,  that  that  war  was 
brought  on  by  outrages  upon  the  rights  of  the  Indians ;  that  it  was  gotten  up 
for  the  purpose  of  speculation  :  and  that  it  was  the  treaties  which  caused  the 
•war.  Well,  sir,  suppose  the  treaties  did  cause  the  war;  suppose  we  did  have 
vagobonds  in  that  country  who  committed  outrages  upon  the  Indians  ;  suppose 
some  few  citizens  were  operated  upon  by  the  motive  of  making  a  speculation 
out  of  the  war;  if  these  things  be  true,  did  they  make  it  any  less  the  duty 
of  the  people,  and  of  the  authorities  of  the  Territories,  a  war  having  come  upon 
them,  to  protect  the  settlements  ?  What  account  would  an  executive  have  had 
to  render,  who,  when  he  heard  that  the  Indians  were  devastating  the  settle 
ments,  burning  the  houses,  and  massacreing  the  women  and  children,  had  de 
clined  to  protect  those  settlements  on  the  ground  that  here  and  there  a  white 
man  had  outraged  Jthe  Indians,  and  had  driven  them  to  arms?  Suppose  the 
treaties  did  incite  the  war,  was  it  the  fault  of  the  people  of  those  Territories  ? 
Was  the  appointment  of  commissioners,  the  calling  together  of  councils,  and  the 
forming  of  treaties  their  act?  Not  at  all.  It  was  the  act  of  your  Government. 
It  was  the  act  of  your  Congress.  It  was  done  under  the  orders  of  your  Presi 
dent.  The  people  of  the  Territories  certainly  were  not  responsible,  nor  were 
the  executives  of  those  people,  responsible.  Sir,  it  does  seem  to  me  that  it 
would  be  trifling  with  the  ^intelligence  and  insulting  the  understandings  of 
gentlemen  of  this  Committee,  if  I  were  to  undertake  to  defend  the  people  of 
those  Territories  from  the  charge  of  having  brought  about  this  war  for  purposes 
of  speculation.  Who  are  the  people  of  those  Territories?  How  did  they  get 
there?  Were  they  mere  vagabonds  and  outcasts?  Did  they  go  there  without 


law,  and  give  to  the  world  an  example  of  lawlessness  and  insubordination  I 
No,  sir,  they  were  American  citizens,  the  very  choice  and  flower  of  your  yeo 
manry.  They  went  there  carrying  with  them  the  arts  and  arms,  the' laws  and 
institutions  of  their  country,  and  there  they  planted  empire  and  civilization. 
How  is  this  Government,  and  how  are  the  people  of  these  States  known  upon 
that  coast  ?  It  is  through  the  eighty  odd  thousand  people  there  who  have  given 
to  the  world  from  their  first  settlement,  an  example  of  a  law-abiding,  an  indus 
trious,  a  patriotic,  a  suffering — ay,  and  a  heroic  people.  You  are  known  there 
through  them,  and  through  the  institutions  which  they  have,carried  there  with 
them.  Sir,  when  men  talk  about  vagabonds  in  that  country,  I  might  with 
propriety  refer  them  to  Baltimore,  and  to  Philadelphia,  and  to  New  York,  and 
to  all  your  large  cities,  and  even  to  this  National  Capital. 

Have  you  no  vagabonds?  Have  you  no  courts,  no  juries,  no  jails,  no  peni 
tentiaries?  Why,  even  here,  murder  stalks  at  noon-day,  and  has  marched  in 
procession.  It  has  controlled  the  elections  of  a  neighboring  city;  and  this  too, 
in  your  densely  populated  old  States — this  too,  in  your  cities,  where  civilization 
and  refinement  reign.  I  say  to  gentlemen  who  fling  the  term  vagabond  into  our 
faces,  first  pull  the  beam  out  of  your  own  eye,  and  then  you  can  see  clearly  to 
pull  the  mote  out  of  your  brother's  eye. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  most  emphatically  deny  all  these  charges,  and  I  s<peak 
from  the  most  abundant  opportunities  of  personal  observation.  The  good  name 
of  .that  people  is  dear  to  me.  They  have  behaved  in  such  a  manner'as  entitles 
them  not  to  sufferance,  not  simply  to  be  passed  along,  but  entitles  them  to  your 
admiration  and  praise.  They  have  held  high  advanced,  the  flag  of  their  coun 
try's  honor,  and  have  maintained  the  humanity  and  benificence  of  its  institutions. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  Indian  tribes  of  those  two  Territories  number  some  forty 
odd  thesusand  souls.  In  Washington  some  twenty-two  thousand,  and  in  Oregon 
some  tw<enty  thousand.  When  the  war  commenced  in  1855,  we  had  in  Wash 
ington  only  about  seventeen  hundred  able-bodied  white  men.  The  Indian  tribes 
were  all  greatly  disaffected,  and  their  friendship  could  not  be  depended  on. 
They  numbered  in  the  neighborhood  of  Puget  Sound  alone,  some  twenty-five 
hundred  warriors ;  whilst  on  that  Sound  we  had  not  over  one  thousand  able- 
bodied  white  men.  East  of  the  Cascade  the  Indian  tribes  are  rich,  proud,  and 
brave.  They  had  great  chiefs,  such  chiefs  as  Kam-i-a-y-kan  and  Pu-pu-mux-rnux. 
They  had  shown  their  prowess  in  war,  at  one  time  requiring  the  provisional 
government  of  Oregon  to  exert  all  its  strength  in  order  to  punish  them  for 
the  atrocities  committed  in  the  robbery  and  murder  of  Mr.  Whitman  and  his 
whole  family.  In  the  summer  of  1855,  just  before  the  war  commenced,  the 
general  impression  in  both  Territories  was,  that  there  was  little  or  no  fear  of 
war,  for,  Mr.  Chairman,  we  had  had  rumors  of  this  during  previous  years.  The 
Indians  had  been  more  or  less  disaffected  for  a  long  time.  There  were  many  ru 
mors  of  disaffection  in  the  spring  of  1855,  though  they  were  generally  discred 
ited.  In  the  spring  of  1855,  both  Col.  Bonneville,  in  command  of  the  Columbia 
Paver  District,  and  Major  Rains,  in  command  at  the  Dalles,  came  to  the  con 
clusion  that  the  Walla-Walla  chief  Pu-pu-mux-mux  ought  to  be  seized  and  put 
in  confinement  on  the  ground  that  he  was  getting  up  a  general  Indian  war;  and 
he  would  have  been  seized  and  put  in  confinement,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
persuasions  of  the  Indian  officers,  who,  equally  with  myself,  discredited  the  re 
ports,  and  had  confidence  in  Pu-pu-mux-mux.  Previous  to  my  goyig  to  the 
Walla- Walla  council,  word  was  sent  to  me  by  the  good  father  Kicard,  the 
superior  of  the  missions  in  the  Yakima  aud  Cayuse  country,  that  the  Yakimas, 
Cay  uses,  and  Walla- Wallas  would  attend  that  council  with  a  hostile  purpose, 
and  that  I  would  go  there  at  the  hazard  of  my  life.  I  had  warning  from  various 
sources,  but  the  council  had  been  called,  and  I  went  there  in  good  faith,  in  order 
to  attend  to  the  business  for  which  it  had  been  called.  We  were  in  council 
fourteen  days,  in  friendly  couucil  and  friendly  converse  with  the  chiefs  and 
the  great  body  of  the  people  of -all  these  tribes.  All  these  chiefs  who  after 
wards  took  up  arms  were  in  my  camp,  and  sat  at  my  table  during  these  fourteen 
days.  I  talked  with  them  morning  and  evening,  besides  our  formal  talks  ia 
council;  and  in  regard  to  that  council  this  House  has  now  in  its  possession  an 
official  record  of  its  proceedings — a  record  which  was  taken  verbatim  by  two 
secretaries  separately.  It  is  not  a  fixed  up  or  patched  up  concern.  It  has  been 


charged  that  the  Indians  there  were  threatened,  and  that  force  was  brought  to 
bear  in  order  to  get  their  consent  to  the  concessions  they  made.  Mr.  Chairman 
how  ridiculous  the  charge!  Gen.  Palmer  and  myself  were  the  commissioners, 
and  with  the  Indian  agents,  a  few  employees,  and  twenty-five  soldiers  to  pre 
serve  order  on  the  council  ground,  we  met  there  fifteen  hundred  warriors,  brave 
and  proud  men;  and  I  say  it  is  ridiculous  to  talk  of  our  using  threats  and. 
bringing  force  to  bear  to  get  them  to  yield  to  our  terms.  The  record  speaks  for 
itself.  The  commissioners  have  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  it;  nor  has  the 
Government  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  it. 

When  _,the  Indians  separated,  it  was  with  a  cordial  farewell  on  all  sides 
Kam-i-a-y-kan  was  the  last  man  I  saw ;  and  that  chief  parted  from  me  in  the 
most  cordial  manner,  expressing  the  utmost  satisfaction  at  the  results  of  the 
treaty. 

I  said  to  him  on  parting,  "The  agent  Bolon  will  soon  go  into  your  country  to 
select  a  site  for  the  mills,  and  schools,  and  agency ;  and  I  wish  you  to  advise 
him  in  the  matter."  And  he  replied,  "  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  him,  and  will 
point  out  a  good  place  for  the  mill." 

Pu-pu-mux-mux  also  parted  from  me  in  the  same  manner;  and  if  ever  the 
face  of  an  Indian  expressed  joy  and  satisfaction,  it  was  the  face  of  Pu-pu-mux-mux. 
Such  was  the  fact  in  reference  to  every  Indian  chief,  and  every  Indian  there 
assembled.  I  may  remark,  in  regard  to  Puget  Sound,  that  it  is  the  testimony 
of  the  Indian  chiefs,  without  exception,  and  also  the  testimony  of  all,  well-in 
formed  and  disinterested  white  men  there,  without  exception,  arid  such  is  my 
own  deliberate  judgment,  that  if  we  had  not  made  these  treaties,  the  war  woulcl 
have  been  general.  The  treaties  were  the  controlling  element  in  maintaining 
peace.  Had  it  not  been  for  these  treaties  the  field  of  war  would  have  stretched 
from  the  coast  to  the  divide  of  the  Bitter  Root  mountains. 

But,  sir,  in  the  observations  I  submitted  a  few  days  ago,  I  spoke  of  the  con 
duct  of  our  people,  and  of  the  conduct  of  the  volunteers  during  that  war.  Their 
conduct  was  throughout  humane  and  meritorious.  At  no  time  during  that  war 
•was  there  an}-  unauthorized  killing  by  the  volunteer  forces. 

The  Indians,  whether  friendly  or  hostile,  were  sacred  in  the  camps  of  the 
volunteers,  and  it  is  this  fact  that  we  hold  up  in  the  noon-day  sun  to  disprove 
the  accusations  made  against  the  people  of  those  territories. 

The  first  act  of  war  was  by  the  Indians.  I  have  referred  to  Kam-i-y-a-kan, 
to  his  cordial  farewell  when  I  feft  him,  and  to  his  promise  to  assist  the  Indian 
agent  Bolon,  when  he  went  into  his  country.  The  Yakimas  occupy  a  country 
from  the  Cascades  to  the  Columbia,  one  hundred  and  fiftj*  miles  east  and  west,  and 
some  two  hundred  north  and  south.  In  the  month  of  August  we  began  to  hear 
of  our  citizens  being  murdered  by  the  Yakimas.  Finally  the  reports  became 
so  well  authenticated  that  a  military  force  under  Major  Haller  was  sent  there 
by  Major  Rains,  in  command  of  the  troops  on  the  Columbia  river  to  demand 
the  surrender  of  the  murderers,  or  on  the  event  of  refusal,  to  punish  the  tribe. 

Who  were  killed  by  these  Indians?  The  victim  of  most  mark  was  this  Indian 
agent  Bolon.  He  wa"s  killed  by  the  Yakimas,  and  by  the  order  of  Kamiyakan, 
though  he  went  there  as  their  agent,  loving  the  Yakimas.  He  went  there,  and  went 
alone,  unwilling  to  believe  that  the  reports  of  their  having  killed  our  people 
were  true,  and  hoping  that  the  results  of  his  investigations  would  show  that  no 
such  killing  had  been  done.  He  was  much  beloved  by  the  Yakimas,  was  recog 
nized  by  them  to  be  their  friend,  but  having  resolved  in  war,  they  said,  (referring 
to  Bolon)  "we  kill  our  friends  as  well  as  our  enemies."  He  was  one  of  our  slaugh 
tered  citizens  on  the  grounds  of  the  Yakimas.  We  had  some  ten  or  twelve  others — 
there  were  one  or  two  of  my  own  neighbors;  there  were  two  or  three  from 
Pierce  county,  as  well  as  several  from  the  neighboring  county  of  King;  men  of 
sobriety,  men  of  character — men  who  had  means  at  home  in  the  settled  portions 
of  the  territory,  but  who  had  gone,  as  our  adventurous  American  people  will 
go,  into  the  wilderness  to  see  whether  they  could  not  better  their  fortunes.  They 
were  killed  on  their  way  to  the  mines  at  Colville.  I  submit  it  to  the  gentlemen 
of  this  committee — was  it  right  that  the  military  arm  of  this  Government 
should  be  stretched  out,  when  a  tribe  of  Indians  in  violation  of  the  plighted 
"  .ith  of  treaties,  guaranteeing  safe  conduct  to  all  whites  passing  through  their 


6 

country — slaughtered  an  officer  of  the  republic,  and  citizens  of  the  republic, 
without  cause  or  provocation? 

I  trust  that  I  have  not  to  pause  for  a  reply.  Such  has  been  the  general 
policy  of  the  Government.  Such  has  even  been  the  policy  of  the  British  Gov 
ernment  upon  that  coast,  although  under  the  control  of  a  simple  trading  com 
pany.  The  Hudson  Bay  Company  owe  their  ascendancy  over  the  Indians  to  this 
fact  more  than  to  all  things  else;  that  the  life  of  a  Hudson's  Bay  employe  has 
been  held  sacred,  and  the  Indians  who  did  violence  to  it  were  held  to  a  strict  ac 
countability.  I  could  mention  many  instances  when  this  course  was  pursued. 

It  has  been  alleged  that  the  miners  passing  through  the  Yakima,  violated 
the  Indian  women,  and  committed  other  outrages  which  provoked  them  to 
retaliate.  I  heard  nothing  of  this  on  the  Spokane  coming  in  from  the  Missouri, 
though  I  used  every  means  to  ascertain  whether  the  war  had  been  provoked 
by  indiscretion  and  wrong,  conferring  not  only  with  the  Indians  of  the  Spokane 
and  neighboring  tribes,  but  with  the  fathers  of  mission  at  the  Coeur  d'Alene  and 
at  Colville,  and  with  the  officers  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  at  the  latter 
place. 

In  consequence  of  these  murders,  Major  Haller  marched  into  the  Yakima 
country  with  about  one  hundred  regular  troops ;  was  met  and  attacked  by  a 
force  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  hundred  warriors,  and  though,  for  a  time,  entirely 
surrounded  and  cut  off  from  water,  maintained  his  position,  reached  water 
after  an  obstinate  and  protracted  fight  of  some  twenty-four  hours,  and  finally 
succeeded  in  making  good  his  retreat  and  saving  his  command  with  a  loss  in 
killed  and  wounded,  of  one-third  of  his  entire  force.  While  surrounded,  he 
was  fortunate  enough  to  get  off  a  friendly  Indian,  who  made  his  way  to  the 
Dalles  and  gave  information  of  the  condition  of  Major  Haller's  command.  There 
was  great  excitement  throughout  both  Washington  and  Oregon  in  consequence. 
Major  Rains  immediately  made  a  requisition  upon  the  Governors  of  Washington 
and  Oregon  for  volunteers,  and  that  requisition  was  promptly  complied  with.  The 
volunteers  moved  into  the  field,  and  thus  this  war  had  its  origin,  so  far  as  the 
volunteers  were  concerned.  I  have  here  a  whole  volume  of  requisitions  and 
orders,  and  correspondence,  demonstrating  these  facts,  but  will  not  read  from 
the  volume  as  -it  will  occupy  time  needlessly. 

The  volunteers,  Mr.  Chairman,  came  into  sei  vice  in  consequence  of  the  attack 
of  an  overwhelming  force  of  Indians  upon  the  troops  of  the  regular  service,  in 
virtue  of  a. requisition  of  the  officer  in  command  of  the  military  district,  and 
because  the  regular  troops  were  inadequate  to  protect  the  settlements  and 
bring  this  war  to  a  conclusion. 

On  Puget  Sound  we  had  extraordinary  difficulties  to  contend  with.  The  war 
first  broke  out  by  the  murder  of  a  settlement  of  twelve  persons  on  White  river, 
and  under  circumstances  of  great  atrocity.  The  settlers  became  alarmed  in 
consequence  of  the  floating  rumors  that  the  Indians  were  bent  on  war,  and  had 
fled  from  their  homes  to  the  nearest  town,  Seattle.  The  Indians  who  were 
their  neighbors,  went  to  them  at  Seattle,  and  told  them  that  they  were  need 
lessly  alarmed,  asked  them  to  go  back  to  their  claims,  and  assured  them  that  if 
any  danger  should  threaten  them,  they  would  give  them  timely  warning.  They 
returned  back;  but  before  the  morning's  sun  had  risen,  they  were  all  slaughtered 
in  cold  blood,  and  by  the  Indians  who  had  invited  them  back.  Not  men  only 
were  murdered,  but 'helpless  women  and  tender  children.  Two  children,  with 
the  mangled  remains  of  their  mother,  were  thrown  to  the  bottom  of  a  well. 
The  Indians  on  that  Sound  exceeded  the  whites  as  five  to  two.  It  was  time, 
certainly,  that  our  citizens  should  take  up  arms,,  and  by  energy  and  vigor  en 
deavor  to  reduce  to  subjection  the  Indians  engaged  in  this  terrible  massacre, 
and  prevent  the  other  tribes  joining  them.  It  was  done,  and  I  have  yet  to  be 
convinced  that  it  was  not  done  rightly. 

Why,  Mr.  Chairman,  on  that  Sound,  so  inadequate  was  the  force  of  regular 
troops,  and  in  such  imminent  danger  was  the  whole  community,  that  a  volunteer 
company — raised  for  the  field — was  detained  for  the  defense,of  Fort  Steilacoom, 
in  charge  of  the  regular  troops.  Lieut.  Nugen,  in  command  at  that  post,  took 
ther  esponsibility  of  raising  a  company  of  forty  men,  under  Capt.  W.  H.  Wallace, 
and  then  wrote  the  Adjutant  General  of  the  volunteers,  trusting  that  the  Act- 


ing-Governor  would  approve  his  action ;  and  he  also  wrote  for  cartridges  to  be 
sent  them,  as  he  was  deficient  in  amuuition.  I  give  his  letters  in  full,  establish 
ing  these  facts. 

FORT  STEILACOOM,  W.  T.,  October  2,1st,  1855. 

SIR:  I  have  the  honor  to  state  that  I  have  called  upon  the  citizens  of  Pierce 
county  for  one  company  of  volunteers,  to  act  against  the  Indians  on  White  river 
and  vicinity,  who  have  been  murdering  our  citizens,  and  attacked  the  company 
of  rangers  under  Captain  Eaton,  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States. 

This  call  has  been  promptly  responded  to,  and  a  company  of  forty  are  now 
ready  to  take  the  field,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Wallace,  who  will  re 
port  to  you  for  orders. 

I  wish  you  would  come  down  to  our  post,  as  I  think  your  presence  would 
expedite  matters.  I  trust  you  will  succeed  in  getting  another  company  in  your 
place,  as  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  no  less  than  one  hundred  men  should  think  of 
taking  the  field,  they  to  act  together,  and  the  work  will  speedily  be  finished. 
I  trust  that  the  Acting-Governor  will  approve  of  my  action,  as  I  could  see  no 
other  way  to  maintain  the  peace  of  our  country. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  NUGEN, 
Second  Lieutenant  4th  Infantry,  Com.  Post. 

JAMES  TILTON, 

Adjutant  General  W.  T.  Volunteers. 


HEAD  QUARTERS,  FORT  STEILACOOM, 

November  1st,  1855. 

SIR  :  I  have  detained  Captain  Wallace's  company  of  volunteers  to  assist  in 
protecting  this  post,  in  case  an  attack  should  be  made.  Dr.  Tolmie,  just  in  from 
Nisqually,  informs  me  that  one  of  his  shepherds  saw  a  band  of  some  twenty 
Klickitats,  Justin  rear  of  Nisqually,  last  night. 

I  have  nearly  all  the  women  and  children  in  the  country  at  the  post,  and  will, 
of  course,  protect  them. 

I  would  respectfully  request  that  all  the  men  in  this  section  of  the  country  be 
called  out,  as  I  am  firmly  of  the  belief  that  we  are  to  have  a  general  Indian 
war  in  this  vicinity. 

Send  me  down  cartridges  at  the  earliest  moment,  as  it  is  reported  the  Indians 
are  to  make  an  attempt  at  taking  our  fort  to-night.     This  is  just  a  report,  but 
I  wish  to  have  plenty  of  amunition,  and  ]  am  rather  short  just  at  this  time. 
With  great  respect,  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  NUGEN, 

Second  Lieutenant  4th  Infantry,  Com.  Post. 
JAMES  TILTON, 

Adjutant  General  W.  T.  Volunteers,  Olympia. 

These  letters  show  the  cordial  relations  between  the  regular  and  volunteer 
service  in  the  Territory,  when  the  difficulties  first  occurred.  Such  had  been 
our  relations  from  the  first  organization  of  the  Territory.  Such  they  continued 
to  be  until  the  veteran  commander  of  the  department  of  the  Pacific  pronounced 
the  war  the  act  of  unprincipled  white  men — as  having  been  got  up  as  a  matter 
of  speculation;  denounced  authorities  and  people  as  Indian  exterminators, 
refused  to  recognize  the  necessity  of  calling  out  volunteers,  and  endeavored  en 
tirely  to  ignore  them  when  in  the  field. 

However,  this  same  commander  did  finally  call  upon  me  in  March  for  two 
companies  of  volunteers  for  the  defense  of  Puget  Sound,  which  I  refused  to 
respond  to  for  reasons  given  in  full  in  the  official  correspondence. 

It  is  a  fact  well  known  on  that  coast  to  the  officers  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com 
pany,  that  the  Indians  of  southern  Oregon  have  always  been  so  hostile  that 
the  employees  of  that  Company  did  not  dare  to  trap  there.  Parties  passing 
through  there  to  California  never  ventured  to  stop  there  for  a  day.  I  have 
this  from  the  chief  factor  of  the  Company,  at  Vancouver.  I  need  not  go  over 
the  ground  in  southern  Oregon,  for  it  has  been  fully  occupied  by  the  distin- 
giiished  delegate  from  that  Territory. 


Here,  then,  was  the  origin  of  this  war — a  war  entirely  unprovoked — a  war 
caused  by  no  bad  conduct  of  our  people,  but  caused  altogether  by  the  feeling 
of  antagonism  between  the  two  races.  The  Indians  there  had  heard  of  Indian 
difficulties  on  this  side  of  the  Eocky  Mountains,  and  it  was  a  combination  with 
them  to  drive  the  whites  out  of  the  country. 

Mr.  CUKTIS.  I  wish  to  say  to  my  friend,  at  this  point,  that  his  country,  in 
respect  to  this  charge  of  the  Indian  difficulties  having  been  commenced  by  the 
whites,  is  precisely  in  the  same  situation  that  our  whole  Indian  frontier  has 
been  for  the  last  ten  years.  Whenever  there  have  been  hostilities,  there  are 
traders  and  others  who  have  carried  abroad  the  idea  that  the  first  assaults  were 
made  by  the  whites.  Never  mind  what  atrocities  have  been  committed  by  the 
Indians,  such  are  the  reports  circulated.  It  has  been  in  my  experience,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  that  such  is  the  case  in  Oregon  and  Washington,  that  the  Indians 
are  always  the  aggressors. 

And  I  accord  my  testimony  to  that  of  the  gentleman,  that  these  charges 
against  the  white  people  of  the  frontier  are  most  unjust.  I  had  no  opportunity 
before  to  reply  to  th«  remarks  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia,  (Mr.  GARXETT,) 
who  insinuated  that  all  these  Indian  wars  Were  got  up  on  speculation.  I  recol 
lect  that  many  years  ago  Indian  wars  were  quite  as  common  as  on  the  frontier ; 
and  I  would  like  the  gentleman  to  say  whether,  when  John  Smith  had  charge 
of  the  Virginia  colony,  he  was  not  provoked  by  Indian  warfare,  and  had  not 
his  calamities  with  them  as  we  have  at  this  day  ? 

Mr.  SMITH,  of  Virginia.     They  were  not  so  expensive. 

Mr.  CURTIS.  But  they  destroyed  your  colonies.  There  was  nothing  but 
your  bones  left.  Your  soil  was  red  with  the  blood  shed  in  the  Indian  wars, 
and  the  history  of  the  country  shows  that  that  has  been  the  character  of  this 
warfare. 

Mr.  STEVENS,  of  Washington.  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  my  friend  from 
Iowa  for  the  remarks  which  he  has  made.  I  know,  myself,  that  in  1853,  I  had 
a  strong  feeling  that  there  was  much  of  outrage  committed  by  the  whites  upon 
:  the  Indians,  and  that  that  was  the  prolific  cause  of  Indian  wars.  But,  as  I  be 
came  acquainted  with  the  frontier  population,  and  as  I  came  to  know  facts  as 
they  were,  my  mind  was  changed,  and  I  here  declare,  on^my  responsibility, 
that  the  «harges  are  utterly  unfounded. 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  regard  to  the  military  operations  undertaken  in  these  two 
Territories,  I  desire  to  say  a  few  words.  I  shall  mainly  confine  my  observa 
tions  to  the  operations  at  Walla- Walla,  for  that  is  the  salient  point  of  the  whole 
business.  It  is  admitted  on  all  sides  that  there  was  a  war  in  southern  Oregon 
and  on  Puget  sound,  in  the  Territory  of  Washington,  and  that  it  became 
absolutely  necessary  that  the  white  settlers  should  organize  for  defense.  But 
it  has  been  said  that  the  advance  of  the  volunteers  upon  Walla-Walla,  drove 
the  Indians  into  hostility;  that  the  Walla- Walla  chief,  Pu-pu-mux-mux,  was 
friendly;  and  that  even  when  the  volunteers  reached  the  valley  he  endeavored 
to  make  peace ;  that  he  was  treacherously  slain  under  the  protection  of  a  flag 
of  truce;  that  the  volunteers  commenced  the  attack,  and  that  the  Indians  re 
sisted  simply  to  get  in  safety  their  women  and  children.  The  fight  of  the 
Walla- Walla  was  a  four  days'  fight.  I  was  moving  at  the  time  from  the  Spo 
kane  to  the  Nez  Perces  country.  I  was  in  the  midst  of  an  Indian  council  with 
the  Nez  Perces,  making  my  arrangements  with  that  tribe  to  get  the  services  of 
its  warriors,  to  force  my  way  through  the  hostile  Walla-Wallas,  Cayuses,  and 
other  tribes  under  the  lead  of  Pu-pu-mux-mux,  to  the  settlements,  when  the 
news  came  of  that  fight.  The  Indian,  who  had  rode  one  hundred  miles  the 
previous  eighteen  hours,  told  all  the  circumstances  of  that  fight,  at  one  end  of  the 
council  lodge,  to  the  Indians  there  assembled,  and  it  was  interpreted  to  me,  sitting 
in  council,  at  the  other  end.  I  had  previously  conferred  with  the  chiefs  of  the 
Nez  Perces  tribe  and  with  the  chiefs  on  the  Spokane,  in  order  to  satisfy  myself 
of  the  attitude  of  Pu-pu-mux-mux.  I  became  satisfied  it  was  one  of  unmiti 
gated  hostility.  When  I  reached  the  Nez  Perces  country  the  chief  Joseph,  the 
third  chief  of  the  tribe,  an  old  man  of  over  seventy  years  of  age,  had  returned 
but  a  short  time  from  a  mission  of  peace  to  the  Walla- Walla.  He  had  en 
deavored  to  dissuade  Pu-pu-mux-mux  from  going  to  war.  But  Pu-pu-mux-mux 


drove  him  away  with  scorn  and  contumely,  telling  him,  "I  ani  the  chief  here; 
I  am  like  yonder  mountain,  above  other  men.  I  counsel  with  no  man.  Go 
home!  Perhaps  your  own  people  will  listen  to  you."  Joseph  then  went  to 
the  Cayuses,  and  saw  their  chiefs — the  Young  Chief  the  Five  Crows,  and  Cam es- 
pello — and  entreated  them  to  continue  friendly.  They  treated  him  with  the 
same  scorn  and  contumely  as  did  Pu-pu-mux-mux,  the  more  significant  as  he  was 
allied  to  them  by  Wood,  being  a  half-Cayuse.  And  Josephh  went  home  discour 
aged  and  heart-broken.  These  same  facts  I  had,  on  reaching  the  Walla-Walla, 
from  the  friendly  Cayuse  and  Walla-Walla  chiefs,  small  in  number,  who  persisted 
in  their  refusal  to  join  the  war-party.  Howlishwampo,  Tintemitse,  and  Stickas, 
of  the  Cayuses,  and  Pierre,  of  the  Walla-Wallas,  with  their  followers,  had  main 
tained  their  friendship  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  having  left  the  main  camp 
of  their  tribe  and  encamped  with  the  settlers  who  remained  in  the  valley.  These 
settlers  were  not  attacked  by  Pu-pu-mux-mux  and  the  allied  chiefs,  because  it 
could  only  be  done  by  passing  over  the  dead  bodies  of  the  friendly  chiefs.  All 
these  facts  I  learned  before  any  controversy  had  grown  up,  and  before  I  imagined 
any  controversy  could  possibly  grow  up  in  regard  to  the  position  of  Pu-pu- 
mux-mux  and  the  allied  tribes  and  chiefs. 

A  gentleman  who  has  made  himself  conspicuous  by  his  denunciations  of  the 
volunteers  and  his  defense  of  Pu-pu-mux-mux,  has  ad'mitted  that  the  seizure  of 
Fort  Walla- Walla  was  an  act  of  hostility;  that  the  appropriating  of  Govern 
ment  property  there,  and  distributing  it  among  the  several  tribes,  was  an  act 
of  hostility ;  that  the  burning  of  the  houses  of  all  the  settlers  in  that  valley 
was  an  act  of  hostility.  But  that  there  was  convincing  evidence  that  all  these 
acts  of  hostility  were  not  the  acts  of  Pu-pu-mux-mux,  but  the  acts  of  the  Yel 
low  Serpent.  K"ow  Pu-pu-mux-mux  and  the  Yellow  Serpent  are  one  and  the 
same  man.  Pu-pu-mux-mux,  in  the  Walla-Walla  tongue,  Serpent  Jaune,  in 
French,  and -the  Yellow  Serpent,  in  English,  are  the  several  names  of  this  re 
nowned  chief,  known  to  all  voyagers  and  well-informed  men  in  that  country, 
and  well  known  to  myself.  And  this  Indian  chief,  whether  he  be  called  Pu-pu- 
mux-mux,  Serpent  Jaune,  or  the  Yellow  Serpent,  was  guilty  of  the  acts  of  hos 
tility  above  enumerated,  and  this  too  by  the  admission  of  Pu-pu-mux-mux's  de 
fender  and  apologist. 

The  record  evidence  is  overwhelming  and  conclusive  of  Pu-pu  mux-mux's 
hostility.  It  was  early  reported  by  the  Indian  agent  on  the  ground.  It  was 
testified  to  by  all  the  settlers  of  that  valley,  and  by  the  factors  and  employees 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  posted  at  Walla- Walla.  And  the  record  evi 
dence  is  equally  overwhelming  and  conclusive  that  all  the  charges  of  Pu-pu- 
mux-mux  being  entrapped  by  a  flag  of  truce  and  treacherously  killed,  are 
utterly  unfounded.  The  officers,  the  Indian  agent,  and  the  interpreter,  present 
at  the  first  conference — every  eye-witness,  and  they  are  men  of  unimpeachable 
honor  and  integrity,  present  at  his  death,  agree  as  to  the  essential  facts.  Pu- 
pu-mux-mux  did  approach  the  volunteer  camp  with  a  flag  of  truce,  and  a  con 
ference  was  held.  Col.  Kelly,  in  command  of  the  troops,  refused  to  receive 
him,  except  as  a  prisoner.  Pu-pu-mux-mux  went  to  his  camp  as  a  prisoner,  his 
object  being  to  gain  time  in  order  to  concentrate  the  Indian  forces;  and  also 
by  cunning  and  management  to  induce  the  troops  to  occupy  a  position  where  he 
could  attack  them  with  advantage.  On  his  reaching  camp  Col.  Kelly  still  re 
fused  to  receive  Pu-pu-mux-mux  on  any  other  terms  except  as  a  prisoner,  and 
offered  to  let  him  go  home.  Pu-pu-mux-mux  continued  with  the  volunteer?, 
recieving  from  them  kind  treatment,  and,  as  he  stated,  sent  word  to  his  people 
to  keep  friendly.  The  volunteers  marched  towards  the  Indian  camp,  Pu-pu- 
mux-mux  accompanying  them,  when  they  were  attacked  by  Pu-pu-niux-mux's 
people.  In  this  manner  the  action  commenced,  and  while  it  was  going  on  the 
chief  endeavored  to  make  his  escape,  and  was  killed  whilst  furiously  attacking 
his  guard.  He  was  killed  while  struggling  with  his  guard  and  endeavoring  to 
wrest  the  gun  of  his  guard  from  his  hands.  This  action  lasted  four  days,  ^re 
sulted  in  a  complete,  victory  over  the  Indians,  and  drove  every  hostile  Indian 
to  the  northward  of  Snake  river.  Its  effect  on  the  Indian  mind  was  prodigious, 
as  I  personally  know  from  my  own  intercourse  with  the  Indians  of  the  interior 
at  the  very  time. 

Mr.  Chairman,  this  movement  on  the  Walla-Walla,  therefore,  did  protect 


10 

our  frontier.  It  maintained  the  peace  of  the  interior  for  the  long  winter 
of  1855-'56.  In  this  connection  I  desire  to  refer  to  the  general  order  emana 
ting  from  the  conqueror  of  Mexico,  Lieut.  Gen.  Scott,  complimenting  the  valiant 
officers  and  men  of  the  army,  who  made  an  expedition  of  twelve  days  against 
the  Apaches  of  New  Mexico.  It  was  an  expedition  of  eight  companies — four  hun 
dred  men — moving  against  cue  of  the  nomadic  tribes  of  the  far-famed  Apaches. 
In  that  general  order,  twelve  officers  and  twenty-six  men  are  mentioned  as 
having  particularly  distinguished  themselves.  Here  are  three  reports,  (holding 
up  the  open  volume  containing  them,)  one  from  Col.  Bonneville,  a  gentleman 
well  known  to  me ;  another  from  Captain  Ewell,  a  friend  of  my  youth,  three 
years  with  me  at  the  Military  Academy,  a  most  gallant  and  meritorious  man ; 
and  the  third  from  Col.  Miles,  giving  all  the  details  of  this  action.  It  was 
not  a  case  simply  of  soldiership,  but  of  conduct.  It  was  not  enough  that  the 
men  were  brave,  but  they  must  be  well  managed.  It  was  a  case  of  tactics  and 
strategy,  of  flanks,  and  rears,  and  reserves. 

These  reports  show  that  eight  companies  of  troops — 400  men — pursued, 
overtook,  fought  and  defeated — how  many?  Forty  warriors.  There  is  your 
feat  of  arms !  made  the  subject  of  a  general  order;  in  which  twelve  officers,  and 
twenty-six  men,  are  reported  for  distinction.  I  speak  of  it  with  entire  respect. 
The  gallant  Scott  knew  full  well  that  the  disparity  of  force  did  not  make  the 
affair  ridiculous. 

Now,  gentlemen,  go  with  me  to  the  distant  Territories  of  Washington  and  Ore 
gon,  and  to  the  plains  of  the  Walla-Walla,  where  300  volunteers  fought  seven 
hundred  Indians,  for  four  days,  and  defeated  them,  killing  some  seventy  Indians. 
Go  with  me  to  the  Grande  Ronde,  where  the  gallant  Col.  Shaw,  with  one  hun 
dred  and  sixty  y>lunteers  of  Washington,  fought  three  hundred  Indians,  killing 
some  forty,  and  striking  a  great  blow  upon  the  hostile  Indians.  Go  with  me 
rto  the  battle  of  Council's  prairie,  on  the  shores  of  Puget  Sound,  where  one 
hundred  and  sixty  volunteers  fought  two  hundred  Indians,  and  defeated  them, 
killing  thirty  of  their  number. 

This  movement  of  ShawJs  was  something  more  than  a  twelve  days  march. 
Three  columns  of  troops  moved  simultaneously  from  the  sound,  from  the  Co 
lumbia  Valley,  and  from  the  Nez  Perces  country,  meeting  at  the  Walla- Walla, 
within  a  single  day,  and  then  a  vigorous  movement  with  a  portion  of  this  force 
was  made  across  the  Blue  mountains,  a  forced  march,  some  sixty  miles  in  one 
night  and  a  day,  when  the  enemy  was  struck  and  completely  routed.  The 
troops  from  the  sound  crossed  the  Cascades,  snow  still  on  the  mountains,  and 
marched  some  tree  hundred  miles  to  the  point  of  rendezvouz.  Of  all  these 
three  columns  the  arrangements  were  complete,  and  the  means  of  transportation 
ample,  the  column  from  the  Dalles  having  in  their  train  forty-five  wagons,  car 
rying  not  only  supplies  for  the  troops,  but  a  large  quantity  of  provisions  for 
the  friendly  Indians. 

Sir,  I  say,  all  honor  to  the  officers  and  men  who  conquered  the  Indians  in 
New  Mexico ;  but,  I  ask  the  Committee,  also,  to  do  like  honor  to  the  volunteers 
of  Washington  and  Oregon,  who  fought  the  Indians,  always  being  outnumbered, 
and  sometimes  more  than  two  to  one.  I  ask,  for  the  people  of  those  Territories, 
the  same  measure  of  justice  which  has  been  rendered  to  the  people  of  New  Mexico 
and  the  people  of  Florida.  There  have  been  Indian  difficulties  in  Florida,  and, 
within  two  years,  you  have  had  twelve  companies  of  regulars  there,  and,  at 
least,  six  companies  of  volunteers.  And,  I  thank  God,  that  Florida  was  near 
enough  to  the  Federal  Capital  for  its  governor  to  come  here,  post  haste,  and  to 
procure  the  recognition  of  the  services  of  the  volunteers  of  Florida  by  the 
General  Government.  Sir,  that  force  was  unquestionably  necessary;  they 
fought  the  Indians,  and  now,  when  they  have  subdued  them,  it  appears  that 
there  were  about  one  hundred  and  sixty-two  Indians  there,  including  women 
and  children.  You  sent  that  force  against  less  than  one  hundred  warriors,  and 
the  expenses  incurred  by  the  Florida  volunteers  have  been  paid,  and  paid 
'promptly,  by  this  Federal  Government.  So  with  New  Mexico:  the  expenses 
of  the  volunteers  in  New  Mexico  have  been  paid  by  the  General  Government, 
and  the  provision  to  pay  them  was  put  in  the  army  appropriation  bill.  So  in 
the  case  of  California :  Congress  made  an  appr6priation  to  pay  the  Fremont 
riflemen,  and  organized  a  board  of  three  army  officers  to  inquire  into  the 


11 

balance  of  the  claims.  The  army  officers  made  an  examination ;  they  reported 
to  the  Secretary  of  War,  and,  at  the  very  next  session  of  Congress,  their 
awards  were  provided  for  in  the  army  appropriation  bill.  The  army  appro 
priation  bill,  of  the  session  of  1853  and  1854,  contained  an  appropriation  of 
nearly  one  .million  of  dollars,  for  paying  the  volunteers  of  California,  for  ex 
pense's  incurred  in  suppressing  Indian  hostilities  previous  to  1854. 

We  ask  the  same  measure  of  justice  for  the  people  of  our  Territories  that  has 
been  already  extended  to  people  nearer  to  you — in  Florida,  New  Mexico,  and 
California. 

I  desire  now  to  dwell,  for  a  few  moments,  on  another  topic.  I  contend  that 
the  expenses  were  economical;  that  they  were  small;  that  they  were  m\ich 
less  than  any  intelligent  and  disinterested  man,  after  looking  into  all  the  facts, 
would  expect  them  to  be.  We  had  in  Washington  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety- 
six  men  enlisted,  and  their  average  term  of  service  was  one  hundred  and  twelve 
days.  The  total  expense  of  each  man,  exclusive  of  pay,  was  but  little  over 
$500 — ($507  32.)  What  is  the  expense,  per  man,  in  the  regular  service?  It 
was  about  $1,000  a  year,  last  year,  and  throwing  out  the  pay,  it  was  about 
$850.  That  is  the  expense  of  troops  in  the  regular  service — a  large  proportion 
of  whom  are  stationed  at  the  forts  and  depots  on  the  Atlantic,  the  Gulf,  the 
Lakes,  and  the  Mississippi  river  and  its  tributaries,  at  points  accessible  to  steam 
boat  navigation.  But,  sir,  when  you  come  to  compare  the  expenses  of  the 
regulars  with  the  volunteers,  I  shall  insist  that  you  compare  them  in  like  con 
ditions.  It  will  not  do  to  compare  the  expenses  of  the  volunteers  in  Oregon, 
on  the  plains  of  the  Walla-Walla,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  our  settle 
ments,  protecting  those  settlements  by  their  gallantry  and  conduct  throughout 
the  winter  of  1855-'56,  with  the  expenses  of  the  regular  troops  lying  in  their 
rear,  at  this  very  time  in  garrison  at  the  Dalles,  the  Cascades,  and  Vancouver. 
You  must  compare  their  expenses  in  the  field  with  the  expenses  of  the  regulars  in 
the  field.  Compare  the  expenses  of  the  volunteers,  in  their  campaign  of  the  Walla- 
Walla,  with  the  expenses  of  the  regular  service  in  its  campaign  of  the  Yaki- 
rna,  and,  my  word  for  it,  you  will  find  that  our  expenses  were  the  smallest,  per 
man.  In  this  estimate  I  mean  to  include  transportation  from  the  depots,  at 
home,  as  a  charge  upon  the  regular  service.  That  is  my^  deliberate  judgment 
from  a  careful  examination  of  the  matter.  And  here,  in  this  comparison,  I 
shall  have  a  charge  to  make  against  the  regular  service.  I  shall  insist  that  the 
nineteen  dead  bodies  left  on  the  ground  at  the  Cascades,  in  consequence  of  Col. 
Wright  advancing  upon  the  Walla-Walla,  and  leaving  his  rear  unprotected  and 
insecure,  be  taken  into  the  account.  He  did  not  leave  a  sufficient  garrison  at 
the  Cascades.  It  was  attacked  by  the  Indians,  held  in  their  possession,  (with 
the  exception  of  one  block-house  and  one  house)  for  twenty-four  hours — every 
house,  except  these,  was  burned ;  nineteen  persons  were  slain,  and  it  compelled 
a  retrograde  movement  of  Wright,  already  in  march  for  the  Walla-Walla, 
finally  caused  the  abandonment  of  that  movement  on  the  Walla- Walla,  and 
the  organization  of  a  new  campaign  into  the  Yakima  country.  Let  all  these 
things  be  taken  into  the  account  in  a  comparison  between  the  services,  for,  I 
affirm,  no  such  military  blunder  was  committed  in  the  volunteer  service. 

Sir,  I  make  no  point  against  the  regular  service.  I  was  bred  in  that  service, 
and  have  given  to  it  fourteen  years  of  faithful  service.  There  I  have  all  my 
early  srieuds;  there  many  of  the  warmest  friends  of  my  manhood  now  are,  and 
I  thank  heaven  that  through  all  the  controversies  we  have  had  there  in  refer 
ence  to  affairs  in  those  Territories,  those  men  are  still  my  friends.  They  are 
ever  ready  to  do  their  duty;  but  during  the  winter  of  1855  and  1856  the  fron 
tier  east  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  was  protected  by  the  volunteers,  while 
the  regulars  were  in  garrison.  That  is  a  fact  which  should  stand  out,  and 
which  I  have  brought  out  on  this  occasion. 

Mr.  Chairman,  objection  has  been  made  to  the  allowance,  by  the  commission 
ers,  of  two  dollars  a  day  for  each  enlisted  man,  and  two  dollars  a  day  for  each 
horse.  And  yet  I  have  here  an  official  document  from  the  Quartermaster  Gene 
ral  showing  that  no  laboring  man,  no  packer,  no  teamster  was  employed  in  the 
regular  army  in  these  Territories  during  that  Indian  war  for  less  than  sixty 
dollars  per  month,  and  that  their  pay  ranged  from  that  up  to  $90  per  month. 
I  find  that  for  pack  mules  they  have  invariably  paid  three  dollars  a  day.  If, 


12 

then,  the  regular  service  is  obliged  to  go  into  expenses  like  these  in  that  coun 
try,  paying  on  an  average  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  day  for  common  hands, 
and  paying  it  in  cash,  why  should  you  object  to  the  volunteers  being  paid  two 
dollars  a  day,  who  have  already  waited  two  years  for  payment?  If  the  re 
gular  service  has  paid  for  pack  mules  three  dollars  a  day,  why  should  you 
object  to  pay  two  dollars  a  day  for  the  horses  used  by  the  volunteers?  Sir, 
these  are  pregnant  facts. 

But  there  is  another  topic  which  I  wish  to  dwell  upon  for  a  moment,  and 
that  is  the  employment  of  troops  for  short  intervals.  I  desire  to  correct  an 
erroneous  impression  made  by  reports,  which  have  emanated  from  the  Adjutant 
General's  office.  In  these  reports  the  expenses  of  volunteers  or  militia  (who 
served  simply  for  three  months  or  more)  are  compared  with  the  expenses  of  the 
regular  establishment,  where  the  expenses  of  recruiting  and  discharging  are 
distributed,  over  the  entire  period  of  enlistment  of  five  years.  And  in  these  same 
reports,  also,  the  expenses  of  our  volunteer  service  in  those  two  Territories  are 
compared  with  the  expenses  of  a  regiment  of  infantry  simply  in  depot,  having 
no  expenses  whatever  in  the  way  of  movements  of  troops. 

N"ow  there  are  certain  large  contingent  expenses  incident  to  raising  troops, 
bringing  them  into  the  field,  and  discharging  them.  In  militia  or  volunteer 
service  it  is  distributed  over  a  period  of  three  or  six  months.  In  the  regular 
service,  over  a  period  of  five  years.  To  institute  a  comparison,  therefore,  be 
tween  the  expenses  of  the  regular  and  volunteer  service  for  a  period  of  three 
or  six  months,  these  expenses  should  be  thrown  out  altogether,  or  the  whole 
of  it  in  each  case  be  included  for  the  equal  period  of  comparison;  otherwise  a 
very  heavy  charge  will  be  made  upon  the  volunteer  service  and  held  up 
against  them  to  their  disparagement,  when  the  expense  is  not  because  the 
troops  are  volunteers  or  militia,  but  because  they  are  troops  raised  for  short  in 
tervals  of  time. 

So  it  is  very  unjust  to  compare  the  expenses  of  our  volunteers  with  the  expenses 
of  infantry  in  depot.  The  proper  comparison  is  between  the  expenses  of  our 
foot  and  horse  in  the  field,  in  these  Territories,  with  the  expenses  of  the  foot 
and  horse  of  the  regular  service  in  the  field  in  those  Territories. 

But  this  is  not  all.  If,  in  an  emergency,  you  do  not  resort  to  volunteers, 
what  will  you  do  ?  You  must  institute  a  new  military  system,  increase  your 
army  largely,  and  have  in  depot  surplus  troops  for  any  emergency  which  may 
arise.  And,  therefore,  the  true  and  only  just  comparison  of  expense  is  a  com 
parison  of  the  expenses  which  we  incur  under  our  military  s}~stem,  relying  upon 
the  militia  and  volunteers  of  the  country  in  case  of  emergency,  and  of  the  only 
system  that  can  take  its  place,  viz :  that  of  a  large  standing  army. 

Suppose  that  in  our  Indian  difficulties  you  had  this  large  standing  army,  and  that 
there  had  been  a  surplus  of  troops  at  the  depots  at  home  to  send  out  there.  When 
you  take  the  cost  of  transportation,  the  cost  of  recruiting,  the  cost  of  getting  them 
to  the  field  of  action — you  would  find  in  the  case  supposed  that  there  would  have 
been  an  expense  of  two  or  three  hundred  dollars  a  man,  at  the  very  point  where 
the  expenses  of  the  volunteers  commence.  And  then  when  the  emergency  was 
over  you  would  have  the  cost  of  sending  them  home  again.  You,  gentlemen,  can 
compute  the  cost  for  yourselves.  I  ask  again--if  you  did  not  have  the  volunteer 
service,  what  would  you  do  ?  You  must  Lave  a  standing  army  large  enough  for 
any  emergency,  doing  nothing  nine  years  out  of  ten.  But  such  statements  and 
comparisons  as  these,  the  only  just  and  proper  ones,  are  not  made  in  these  reports ; 
and  yet,  the  mere  statement  of  it  will  convince  the  mind  that  they  are  just  and 
sound  statements  and  comparisons.  If  you  take  the  view  I  have  presented,  it 
will  be  found  that  in  our  territories,  the  expenses  of  the  volunteers  per  man  is 
much  less  than  the  expenses  of  regulars,  if  sent  from  the  States  there  and  sent 
back,  as  must  necessarily  have  been  the  case  had  you  been  obliged  to  rely  upon 
regulars  alone.  Our  means  of  transportation  were  more  economical.  We  used 
ox-trains  instead  of  mule-trains,  and  we  carried  fifty  per  cent,  more  freight  per 
employee  than  was  carried  in  the  trains  of  the  regular  service.  That  is  a  fact 
known  of  all  men  there.  We  made  at  least  as  rapid  trips  as  the  regular  service, 
and  we  showed  that  oxen  were  the  proper  animals  for  wagons  in  that  country. 

But  every  effort  was  made  to  reduce  expenses,  and  the  effort  was  a  success 
ful  one.  All  allowance  of  extra  pay  for  fatigue  service  was  prohibited  in  orders, 


13 

and  the  accounts  for  such  service  were  disallowed  and  thrown  out.  No  such  ac 
counts  were  submitted  to  the  commissioners  appointed  bv  the  Secretary  of  War 
under  the  authority  of  Congress.  This  was  deemed  by  many  very  unjust  at 
the  time,  as  payment  for  fatigue  service  was  recognised  in  the  army,  and  the 
rates  established  by  act  of  Congress.  Our  troops  did  a  very  lar^e  amount  of 
fatigue  service,  as  shown  in  the  block  houses  built  by  them" and  Ihe  roads  cut 
out  by  them  ;  one  company  was  especially  raised  for  fatigue  duty,  and  was 
called  the  Pioneer  company ;  most  of  its  members  were  mechanics,  or  very 
experienced  axemen,  and  for  many  months  they  were  constantly  employed  at 
fatigue  service.  It  was  emphatically  a  company  of  Pioneers  as  "well  as  a  com 
pany  of  fighting  men  ;  the  Indians  making  the'first  attack  upon  them  whilst 
cutting  out  a  road  at  the  battle  of  C.onnel'S  Prairie. 

I  refused  Mr.  Chairman  to  allow  any  extra  compensation  for  fatigue  service, 
because  I  expected  the  pay  of  our  troops  would  have  some  relations  to  the  price 
of  labor  in  the  country;  and  for  a  temporary  rapid  service  organized  for  an 
emergency,  I  did  not  think  the  idea  of  extra  pay  for  fatigue  service  should  be 
countenanced. 

In  the  disposition  of  public  property  in  the  volunteer  service  of  Washington, 
every  exertion  was  made  to  guard  the  rights  of  the  Government.  I  refused  to 
allow  any  volunteer  to  retain  one  animal  even  on  an  appraisal  by  the  officers 
of  the  Quartermaster  Department,  the  same  to  be  charged  upon  the  muster- 
rolls  against  his  pay,  but  directed  every  animal  to  be  disposed  of  at  public 
auction.  Everything  was  sold  at  public  auction  for  the  scrip  issued  in  purchasing. 
The  sales  amounted  to  nearly  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  to 
this  amount  was  the  war  debt  reduced  by  these  sales.  The  sales  were  at  a 
considerable  advance  on  the  original  cost.  Horses  which  cost  from  $250  to  $400 
brought  from  $200  to  $600.  Wagons  costing  $200,  were  readily  sold  at  $300  ; 
and  oxen  were  disposed  of  -at  thirty  per  cent,  above  cost.  This  too,  after  the 
property  had  been  of  course  deteriorated  by  six  months  active  service. 

The  report  of  J.  Ross  Brown,  Special  Agent  of  the  Interior  Department,  gives 
so  graphic  a  picture  of  the  condition  of  the  Territory,  in  1857,  the  year  following 
the  war,  that  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  from  his  report,  as  follows: 

"  On  the  roiid  from  the  Cowlitz  Landing  to  Olympia,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles, 
the  whole  country  bears  distressing  evidences  of  the  disastrous  effects  of  the 
late  war.  In  1854,  when  I  first  passed  through  this  region,  it  abounded  in  fine 
farms  well  cultivated,  and  bearing  luxuriant  crops  of  grain.  Immigration  was 
rapidly  filling  up  all  the  vacant  lands;  and  large  herds  of  stock  were  grazing 
upon  the  prairies.  From  the  signs  of  prosperity  then  apparent,  it  was  not  un 
reasonable  to  predict  that  in  the  course  of  three  years  the  products  and  popu 
lation  would  be  more  than  doubled.  But,  notwithstanding  this  region  was 
exempt  from  any  actual  collision  with  the  Indians,  the  effects  are  nearly  the 
same  as  in  other  parts  of  the  Territory.  All  along  the  road  houses  are  desert 
ed  and  going  to  ruin ;  fences  are  cast  down  and  in  a  state  of  decay  ;  fields,  once 
waving  with  luxuriant  crops  of  wheat,  are  desolate ;  and  but  little,  if  any, 
stock  is  to  be  seen  on  the  broad  prairies  that  formerly  bore  such  inspiring  evi 
dences  of  life.  The  few  families  that  remained,  either  from  necessity  or  incli 
nation,  were  forced  to  erect  rude  block-houses  for  their  defense,  into  which 
they  gathered  by  night  during  the  hostilities,  in  constant  apprehension  of 
attack.  These  rude  defenses  still  stand  at  interval?  along  the  road.  I  mention 
these  facts  with  a  view  of  showing  that,  so  far,  at  least,  the  '  war  speculation' 
charged  upon  the  settlers  of  Washington  Territory  presents  an  unprofitable 
appearance." 

There  was  erected  in  the  Territory,  during  the  war,  thirty-one  block-houses 
by  the  volunteer  troops,  twenty-one  block-houses  by  the  citizens,  without  assis 
tance;  and  some  seven  block-houses  by  the  troops  of  the  regular  service.  Some 
of  these  block-houses  were  large  establishments,  there  being  space  enougn  inside 
the  pickets  for  small  houses  for  the  families  of  the  neighborhood,  the  block 
houses  intended  to  protect.  The  name  and  site  of  each  block-house,  as  well  as 
the  roads  and  trails  cut  out  by  the  volunteer  service  is  given  in  an  official  docu 
ment  published  by  order  of  the  Legislature  of  Washington. 

Of  the  whole  number  of  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-six  enlisted  men  m  the 
Washington  volunteers,  two  hundred  aud  thirty-six  were  friendly  Indians,  aad 


u 

two  hundred  and  fifteen  citizens  of  Oregon,  leaving  fourteen  hundred  and  forty- 
five  citizens  of  Washington  in  service  from  October,  1855,  to  September,  1856. 
Their  average  term  of  service,  as  I  have  before  observed,  was  one  hundred 
and  twelve  days.  Thus  it  will  appear  that  nearly  seven-eighths  of  our  citizens 
served  nearly  four  months  during  that  war — an  amount  of  service  that  has  not 
certainly  its  parallel  in  this,  and  probably  in  any  other  country. 

In  Washington,  the  volunteers  were  nearly  equally  divided  between  foot  and 
mounted  troops.  There  were  one  thousand  and  seventeen  men  who  served  as 
cavalry,  and  eight  hundred  and  seventy  nine  who  served  as  infantry.  The  oper 
ations  on  the  sound — a  large  portion  of  the  country  being  very  heavily  timbered 
and  there  being  in  the  timber  dense  underbrush  and  fallen  logs — required  that 
the  troops  should  be  principally  foot  troops.  The  operations  in  the  interior,  it 
being  mostly  a  prairie  country,  that  all  the  troops  should  be  mounted.  The 
greater  vigor  and  success  .of  the  volunteer  operations  East  of  the  Cascades,  over 
those  of-the  regular  service,  were  due  very  much  to  the  fact  that  the  volunteers 
were  well  mounted,  whereas  the  greater  bulk  of  the  regular  force  was  infantry. 
The  volunteers  were,  however,  very  superior  ih  all  the  qualities  of  service  to  th-e 
regulars.  There  was  scarcely  a  man  in  the  volunteer  service  who  had  not 
crossed  the  plains,  become  inmired  to  all  the  routine  of  camp  life,  and  thoroughly 
accustomed  to  moving  in  that  country,  either  on  his  horse  over  the  prairie,  or 
on  foot  through  the  dense  forests. 

We  had  no  difficulty  whatever  in  raising  foot  troops,  nor  in  dismounting 
our  horse  troops,  when,  as  on  the  Sound,  the  operations  extended  from  the 
prairie  region,  at  the  head  of  the  Sound,  to  the  wooded  regions  eastward,  where 
horses  could  not  be  used. 

The  remarks,  Mr.  Chairman,  of  Mr.  J.  Eoss  Brown  as  to  the  causes  of  the 
war,  are  so  pertinent  and  so  just  that  I  will  give  them  at  length: 

"  Kam-i-y-a-kan,  the  chief  of  the  Yakimas,  was  bitter  in  his  animosity.  As 
early  as  1853  he  projected  a  war  of  extermination  against  the  whole  race  of 
Americans  within  the  country.  It  was  his  settled  determination  to  make  the 
war  general,  and  he  spared  no  inducements  to  affect  a  coalition  with  the  JS"ez 
Perces,  Cayuses,  Walla-Wallas,  and  other  tribes.  For  your  information  on 
this  point,  showing  that  war  actually  was  premeditated  in  1853,  I  send  you 
enclosed  a  translation  of  the  letter  of  Father  Pandory,  priest  at  the  Atahnam 
Mission,  dated  'April  1858,'  to  Father  Mesplie,  at  the  Dalles,  in  which  he 
says :  '  A  chief  of  the  upper  Nez  Perces  has  killed  thirty  head  of  cattle  at  a 
feast  given  to  the  nation  ;  and  this  number  of  animals  not  being  sufficient, 
seven  more  were  killed.  The  feast  was  given  in  order  to  unite  the  hearts  of  the 
Indians  to  make  declaration  of  war  against  the  Americans.  Th?  ough  the  whole 
course  of  the  winter  I  have  heard  the  same  thing — that  the  Cayuses  and  Nez 
Percys  have  united  themselves  for  war.  During  the  course  of  last  sping  I  was 
in  the  Cayuse  country  after  they  had  given  a  similar  feast.  I  said  nothing  be 
cause  I  thought  that  they  had  a  sub-agent  who  would  speak.  *  *  I  will 
recount  to  you  what  they  say.  All  the  Indians  upon  the  left  (north)  bank  of 
the  Columbia,  from  the  Blackfeet  to  the  Chenook,  inclusive,  are  to  assemble  at 
the  Cayuse  country.  All  on  the  right  bank,  through  the  same  extent  of  coun 
try,  are  to  assemble  on  the  Simcoe,  (on  the  Yakima,)  including  those  from  Nis- 
qually  and  the  vicinity.  The  cause  of  this  war  is,  that  the  Americans  are  going 
to  seize  their  lands.'' 

u  This  grave  and  startling  information,  so  fearfully  verified  since,  was  promptly 
communicated  to  Major  Alvord,  who  reported  it  to  General  Hitchcock,  the  then 
commanding  officer  of  the  military  department  on  this  coast.  Major  Alvord 
was  censured  as  an  alarmist,  and  Father  Pandory  was  treated  in  the  same  man 
ner  by  his  superior. 

"  It  will  be  observed  that  the  date  of  the  letter  is  April,  1853.  If  the  war, 
therefore,  was  one  of  speculation,  gotten  up  by  the  settlers  of  Oregon,  the 
scheme  should  have  been  frustrated  then.  Information  that  a  war  was  actually 
going  to  take  place — that  the  Indians  had  avowed  it  in  council — was  in  posses 
sion  of  .the  commanding  officer  of  the  military  department.  Why  did  he  not 
expose  the  speculation  ?  Why  did  not  the  departments  in  Washington  issua 
orders  to  the  governors  of  the  Territories,  apprising  them  of  their  knowedge 
of  this  scheme,  and  cause  it  to  be  then  arrested  ?  Simply,  as  I  conceive,  because 


15 

no  such  scheme  was  ever  contemplated,  either. then  or  since.  The  settlers  only 
asked  protection  for  their  lives  and  property ;"  and  after  both  have  been  freely 
sacrificed,  the  charge  is,  for  the  first  time,  brought  against  them. 

"But  to  return  a  moment  to  the  combination.  As  no  change  took  place  in 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  posts  after  the  treaty  of  1846,  and  their  posses 
sions  and  appearance  of  power  remained  the  same  as  before,  the  Indians,  up  to 
a  very  recent  date,  regarded  the  Territory  of  Washington  as  under  the  influ 
ence  of  '  King  George.' 

"The  Nisqually's  and  other  tribes  of  Puget  Sound,  whose  chief  inter 
course  had  always  been  with  'King  George'  men,  naturally  shared  their  ani 
mosity  against  the  Americans.  When  Governor  Stevens  treated  with  them,  he 
found  them  in  a  very  disaffected  condition.  It  was  with  difficulty  the  chiefs  could 
be  gotten  together.  Something  had  to  be  done  with  them,  and,  under  the  cir 
cumstances  of  difficulty  attending  the  making  of  these  treaties,  I  am  satisfied 
no  public  officer  could  have  done  better.  The  treaties  were  not  the  cause  of 
the  war.  I  have  already;shown  that  the  war  had  been  determined  upon  long  be 
fore.  If  Governor  Stevens  is  to  blame  because  he  did  not  so  frame  the  treaties  as 
to  stop  the  war,  or  stop  it  by  not  making  treaties  at  all,  then  that  charge  should 
be  specifically  brought  against  him. 

"Leschi,  the  celebrated  Nisqually  chief,  was  most  determined  in  his  hostility. 
Bold,  adventurous,  and  eloquent,  he  possessed  an  unlimited  sway  over  his 
people,  and,  by  the  earnestness  of  his  purpose  and  the  persuasiveness  of  his 
arguments,  carried  all  with  him  who  heard  him  speak.  He  travelled  by  day 
and  night,  caring  neither  for  hunger  nor  fatigue;  visited  the  camps  of  the 
Yakimas  and  Klickitats;  addressed  the  councils  in  terms  of  eloquence  such  as 
they  had  seldom  heard.  .He  crossed  the  Columbia,  penetrated  to  southern 
Oregon,  appealed  to  all  the  disaffected  there.  He  dwelt  upon  their  wrongs ; 
painted  to  them,  in  the  exuberance  of  his  imagination,  the  terrible  picture  of 
the  'polakly  illeha,'  the  land  of  darkness,  where  no  ray  from  the  sun  ever 
penetrated;  where  there  was  torture  and  death  for  all  the  races  of  Indians; 
where  the  sting  of  an  insect  killed  like  the  stroke  of  a  spear,  and  the  streams 
were  foul  and  muddy,  so  that  no  living  thing  could  drink  of  the  waters.  This 
was  the  place  where  the  white  men  wanted  to  carry  them  to.  lie  called  upon 
them  to  resist  like  braves  so  terrible  a  fate.  The  white  men  were  but  a  hand 
ful  now.  They  could  all  be  killed  at  once,  and  then  others  would  fear  to  come. 
But  if  there  was  no  war,  they  would  grow  strong  and  many,  and  soon  put  all 
the  Indians  in  their  big  ships  and  send  them  off  to  that  terrible  land,  where 
tortue  and  death  awaited  them. 

"It  may  readily  be  suposed  that  a  rude  and  ignorant  people,  naturally  prone 
to  superstition,  were  not  slow  in  giving  credence  to  these  fearful  stories.  Each 
tribe  had  its  grievance  from  the  north  to  the  south.  Common  interest  bound 
them  in  their  compact  against  a  common  enemy. 

"The  Mormons,  at  this  time,  had  also  sent  their  emissaries  among  them  to 
spread  the  disaffection,  In  the  Simcoe,  at  a  council  of  the  tribes  in  1854,  a 
chief  from  the  Monrnon  country  urged  them  to  war.  The  talk  of  this  chief,  as 
detailed  by  a  friendly  Indian  who  was  in  the  council,  was  to  this  effect:  That 
far  in  the  desert  there  lived  the  greatest  people  on  earth,  who  controlled  the 
sun.  He  had  been  among  them  and  talked  with  them,  and  they  had  sent  him 
here  to  say  what  they  were.  They  could  strike  dead  anybody  at  any  distance; 
they  could  make  the  sun  stand  still;  they  could  make  powder  and  muskets, 
and  they  were  the  friends  oi'  the  Indians.  The  Americans  were  the  enemies  of 
the  Indians.  They  wanted  the  Indians  to  kill  them  all.  They  would  send 
them  powder  and  muskets,  &c. 

"That  the  Mormons  did  furnish  several  of  the  tribes  with  ammunition  is 
proved  by  the  narrative  of  Captain  Shaw,  of  the  Walla- Walla  volunteers.  At 
the  last  battle  fought  up  there,  he  found  powder,  muskets,  balls,  &c.,  among 
the  Indians  bearing  the  Mormon  brand. 

"George  B.  Simpson,  late  interpreter  and  local  agent  at  the  Cascades,  who 
originally  came  to  Salt  Lake  as  an  agent  for  the  Salt  Lake  mails,  states,  from 
his  own  knowledge,  that  the  Mormons  sent  out  emissaries  among  all  the  tribes 
of  Indians  prior  to  the  war,  urging  them  to  unite  in  exterminating  the  Americans. 

"But  the  plan  of  operations  had  not  been  sufficiently  matured.     Some  of  the 


16 

tribes  were  too  impatient  to  wait  till  the  proper  time  had  arrived.  In  the 
Rummer  of  1855,  after  the  discovery  of  the  Colville  mine?,  a  general  rush  took 
place  there.  The  first  man  murdered  was  Mattice,  a  miner,  who  was  on  his 
way  there  with  a  considerable  amount  of  money  and  provisions.  He  was  tilled 
soon  after  desending  the  Snoqualimie  pass  by  a  party  of  Indians  supposed  to  be 
Yakimas.  Near  the  same  time,  Fantjoy,  another  miner,  was  killed.  These 
were  both  respectable  men  from  the  State  of  Maine.  They  were  proprietors  of 
a  coal  mine  on  the  Danamish.  The  murders  on  the  White  river  occurred  some 
two  mouths  after.  Agent  Bolon,  hearing  of  the  Yakima  murders,  crossed  over 
from  the  Dalles  to  see  the  chief  Kamiakin.  Ouahi,  another  prominent  chief, 
was  present  in  camp.  Bolon  spent  the  night  there,  no  doubt  remonstrating 
with  them  for  their  acts.  Next  day,  as  he  was  riding  back,  he  was  overtaken 
by  two  or  three  Indians,  who  rode  along  with  him  in  an  apparently  friendly 
manner.  One  lagged  behind,  and,  while  the  others  engaged  his  attention,  shot 
him  in  the  back.  He  was  then  dragged  from  his  horse,  scalped  and  partly 
burnt.  One  of  the  murderers  is  said  to  be  a  son  of  the  chief  Ouahi. 

"On  the  8th  or  9th  of  October  the  Indians  of  southern  Oregon  began  the 
work  of  extermination.  They  slaughtered,  indiscriminately,  men,  women,  and 
children.  At  or  about  the  same  date  the  war  had  opened  in  "Washington  Terri 
tory.  The  movement  was  simultaneous,  and  could  only  have  been  the  result 
of  concert;  but  the  Indians  themselves  have  since  freely  admitted  that  their 
plan  embraced  all  parts  of  the  country  from  north  to  south. 

"  I  will  not  undertake  to  follow  up  the  history  of  the  war  to  a  later  period, 
Its  peculiar  features  have  been  represented  officially  on  both  sides,  and  its  pro 
gress  and  termination  are  matters  of  public  record. 

"Upon  a  careful  perusal  of  all  the  despatches,  I  find  nothing  to  sustain  the 
charge  of  speculation.  No  person  can  visit  the  Territories  of  Oregon  and 
Washington,  converse  with  the  people,  see  them  on  their  farms  and  at  their 
daily  labors,  and  consider  their  true  interests,  without  coming  to  the  conclusion 
that  such  a  charge  is  absurd  and  monstrous.  What  could  they  hope  to  gain  1 
Few  of  them  had  anything  to  spare  upon  which  to  base  a  speculation.  A 
farmer  is  well  off  who  has  his  fields  fenced  in,  a  few  head  of  oxen,  and  three  or 
four  cows.  If  he  got  treble  price  for  his  stock,  the  sale,  upon  an  unlimited 
credit,  would  have  been  a  sacrifice  to  him.  His  farm  must  go  to  ruin.  The 
interests  of  the  settlers  of  nearly  every  pursuit  are  nearly  identical.  Their 
future  prospects  depend  chiefly  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  country,  the  increase 
of  emigration,  enhancement  in  the  value  of  property,  seourity  of  life,  opening 
of  new  facilities  for  the  transportation  of  their  products.  All  this  was  diamet 
rically  opposed  to  a  war.  No  compensation  that  government  could  make 
would  atone  for  the  murder  of  families,  the  stoppage  of  labor  everywhere,  the 
loss  of  time,  the  suspension  of  emigration,  and  the  numerous  evils  resulting 
from  this  disastrous  conflict. 

"The  commissioners  at  Vancouver  have  faithfully  and  impartially  performed 
their  duty.  Whatever  sum  they  may  have  decided  upon  in  estimating  this 
war  debt,  I  hold  that  amount  to  be  justly  due,  and  trust  that  Congress  will  at 
once  provide  for  its  extinguishment." 

In  conclusion.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  ask  for  the  people  of  those  Territories,  prompt 
and  equal  justice  at  the  hands  of  this  Congress ;  I  ask,  in  the  name  of  their 
patriotism  and  heroic  services  and  sufferings,  for  the  immediate  liquidation  of 
their  claims.  A  commission  appointed  under  its  authority — a  commission  re 
presenting  this  Government,  and  not  the  people  of  these  Territories — a  commis 
sion,  who,  if  they  had  any  bias  or  prejudice,  were  biased  and  prejudiced 
against  us,  have  investigated  the  whole  question,  have  made  their  awards,  have 
submitted  their  report,  7ind  that  report  with  the  approval  of  the  War  Depart 
ment,  is  now  before  Congress.  We  ask  firmly  and  emphatically  for  the  endorse 
ment  of  this  report,  and  the  payment  of  these  awards,  the  present  session  of 
Congress. 


Lithomount 
Pamphlet 

Binder 
Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Stockton,  Calif. 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1908 


